by Jim Beckman, Executive Director of the Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis
When’s the last time you visited a cemetery? Most of us don’t frequent them, and it’s probably the last place we would go visit without a real reason – attend a graveside ceremony after a funeral, visit the gravesite of a loved one, etc. I suppose it may sound morbid, but I have made it a practice of visiting cemeteries.
I recently was up in the Saint Louis area speaking at a conference. As I prepared for an afternoon run one of the days I was there, I found a cemetery on my route, Mount Hope Cemetery in Belleville, Ill. It immediately brought back memories of my college days when I used to run through a cemetery several times a week. There’s something about a cemetery that helps me center, and more importantly remember what the important things in life really are. I’ve made it a practice over the years whenever visiting one to search for a tombstone of someone who died at the same age I currently am. I found a couple in Mount Hope. It’s sobering to call to mind that my life is fragile, and I never know the day or the hour I will be called home.
As I looked around Mount Hope, I saw one tombstone after another – some more impressive than others, but who was taking notice of that? In the end, that’s all that is left of this life. A little piece of rock on the ground marking the years we lived. After all our accomplishments, all our built-up possessions, our popularity and expertise – just a tombstone with our name. This time of year always marks the final stretch of what we call “Ordinary Time” in the Liturgical calendar. It culminates on the Feast of Christ the King in late November, and the new year starts on the first Sunday of Advent.
If you listen closely at Mass in the coming weeks, the readings will focus more and more on death, dying and the end times. That scriptural theme fits with the end of the year, and also matches the fall season unfolding around us – leaves falling, trees turning bare, things turning first colorful, then brown and falling to the ground to die. In some ways, the Liturgical season tries to focus our attention in the same way I started out this article. This earth is not our home, and this life is not what we were created for. There’s so much more!
The real aim of life is to get to heaven, our real home. Throughout the history of the Church, many spiritual writers have taught about this and have helped define the path for how we get there. I had the privilege of teaching a class about this path to our deacons this past Spring, what the Church calls the Spiritual Journey of the Soul.
Countless saints and spiritual writers have written about this journey, and what is quite striking is the amazing similarity in how they describe it. Through the centuries, three stages to the spiritual life have emerged from all these varied writings: the Purgative Way, the Illuminative Way and the Unitive Way. I used a text by Ralph Martin for the class I taught with the deacons, “The Fulfillment of All Desire.” It really is quite good, and I highly recommend it. At close to 500 pages, though, it’s not a quick read. It’s more of a prayer-chair side table book that you will continue to read and reference for years.
“The Fulfillment of All Desire” is a compilation of writings from numerous saints and doctors on Christian spirituality – Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Therese of Lisieux, Saint Theresa of Avila, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint Francis de Sales, etc. It’s a powerhouse of encouragement for our spiritual journey, with great quotes like this from Saint Bernard:
“We have seen how every soul – even if burdened with sin (2 Tim. 3:6), enmeshed in vice, ensnared by allurements of pleasure, a captive in exile, imprisoned in the body, caught in the mind (Ps. 68:3), fixed in mire, bound to its members, a slave to care, distracted by business, afflicted with sorrow, wandering and straying, filled with anxious forebodings and uneasy suspicions, a stranger in a hostile land (Ex. 2:22), and, according to the prophet, sharing the defilement of the dead and counted with those who go down into hell (Bar. 3:11). Every soul, I say, standing thus under condemnation and without hope, has the power to turn and find it cannot only breathe the fresh air of hope of pardon and mercy, but also dare to aspire to the nuptials of the Word, not fearing to enter into alliance with God or to bear the sweet yoke of love (Mt. 11:30) with the King of angels” (Pg. 101).
As we enter this fall season and approach Advent, it’s a good time to reflect on your own end. You don’t necessarily have to go visit a cemetery like I did. But, it could be good to prayerfully reflect on some questions like these: Would you be ready to go home if you were called? Have you been making progress on the spiritual journey toward your ultimate aim, heaven? What hindrances and obstacles are on the path for you?
As Saint Paul says, “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!”